Hanseatic League

A confederation of the principal trading centres of Germany, formed in 1241 for commercial purposes, and specially for mutual defence against the Baltic pirates, and the robber nobles. Its founders were Hamburg and Lübeck, who were shortly afterwards joined by Bremen, Cologne, Danzig and other cities, and still later by many foreign towns, until, at the height of its prosperity, the league comprised eighty cities. The league was di olved in 1630, but Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck retained their privileges as free towns, until they were absorbed into the German Empire in 1871.